Welcome to the OLA for Small Business Landlords

The Ontario Landlords Association (OLA) and its sister organization The Canada Landlords Association (CLA) are leading provincial and national organizations for private small residential landlords. We provide a unified voice for private landlords and promote and protect landlord interests to national and local government.

“The Ministry greatly values the role the Ontario Landlords Association and its members play in providing quality, affordable rental housing in Ontario and recognizes the OLA provides an important voice for small private residential landlords.”

Our Province Wide Landlord Community Believes the Rent Increase is Too Low and We Need A Better Way to Calculate the Rent Increase Guideline To Help Small Landlords Cover Costs

Every year the Ministry of Housing publishes the Rent Increase Guideline.

Ontario has ‘rent control’ and this guideline informs residential landlords how much they can raise the rent in a given year.

The Ministry comes up with this annual guideline by looking at the Consumer Price Index. This index shows the level of inflation based on prices of such things as groceries and the cost of buying clothes.

How Much Can Ontario Landlords Raise the Rent in 2018?

Based on the Consumer Price Index the Ministry of Housing announced Ontario landlords can raise the rent by a maximum of 1.8% in 2018.

This maximum cap applies if you are going to raise the rent from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018.

To do this you will have to go through the Landlord and Tenant Board process.

Many OLA members in the Ontario Landlords Association forum have shared their experiences regarding this process.

While some have succeeded, the consensus is that it is a complicated process and policies don’t have a true understanding of the real life financial challenges small residential landlords face.

What If You Face Higher Utility Costs?

Furthermore, with new rules for Ontario landlords coming this year you cannot apply to raise rents beyond the guideline for skyrocketing utility costs. This is one of the reasons more and more small landlords are not renting out inclusive of utilities.

Aren’t Newer Properties Exempt from Rent Control?

A lot of recent rental stock in Ontario has been created by small landlords investing in newer property such as condos. A common question these days in the Ontario Landlords Association forums is about rent control for new rental properties.

For example an Ottawa landlord wrote: “My rental property was built after 1991. Does this mean I don’t have to follow the government rent increase guideline or not?”

In years past, you were exempted but not anymore.

Previously rent control only covered rental properties that were built prior to November, 1991. This exemption was a strategic decision made to encourage the creation of new rental buildings in the Ontario.

Things have changed this year with the Rental Fairness Act 2017. These new rules mean rent control has been extended to cover rental properties that were built prior to November, 1991.

The Guideline of 1.8% Is Too Low For Me To Keep Up With My Rising Costs

This is a common statement by OLA members.

The Ontario Landlords Association has lobbied for change in how the annual rent increase guideline is calculated. The guideline needs to put far greater weight on the price increases of good and services that impact small landlords.

After all, it costs money for good landlords to run safe, well-maintained rental properties.

Some OLA members suggest a good solution would be for the Ontario guideline to copy what BC landlords have. In British Columbia the guideline is the rate of inflation based on the consumer price index plus 2% (to account for the extra types of costs landlords have).

Landlords Can Raise The Rent 1.8% in 2018

With the importance of owning safe, well-maintained properties and costs rising it’s important for landlords to raise rents annually. We are faced with a very low cap on how much we can raise rents which creates even greater challenges for landlords.

It’s time for the the rent increase guideline to be changed to meet the real needs of residential landlords and to help us improve the quality of the rental stock in Ontario.

It’s time to stop bashing landlords and start working with us to help improve the entire rental industry. This will benefit both good landlords and good tenants.

With new legislation coming to Ontario to protect tenants our province-wide landlord community wants changes to also protect good small landlords & investors who provide high quality, affordable rental housing in Ontario

There was to be a bunch of comprehensive measures which would bring stability to the housing market. This made many small residential landlords interested in what would happen.

As home-owners who run rental businesses, small landlords are important stake-holders in Ontario. None of us wants instability and a lot of landlords were looking forward to the announcement of the new measures to strengthen the housing market and rental industry in our province.

What Are the New Rules For Landlords?

The Premier, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Housing spoke at the press conference on April 20th. The weather was a bit wet and the sparrows were making sure their chirps where heard (as the Housing Minister noted at the press conference).

Our community networked and lots of us viewed the Ontario Premier’s YouTube Channel to watch the press conference. We were eager to find out what the new rules would be to help make the housing market more stable to help tenants and landlords and improve the Ontario rental industry.

Among the changes was a 15% foreign speculation tax, changes to allow municipalities to discuss creating their own vacancy taxes, and allowing some surplus lands be made available for rental property construction.

There was also talk of of big changes to the way landlords can do business in Ontario under what is called Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan.

The announced changes included:

1. Newer Rentals Will Covered By the Rent Control Guideline

If your property was built after 1991 your property will now be covered by the rent increase guideline.

3. Own Use Application Will Mean You Have To Pay Your Tenant 1 Month Of Rent

You can also offer them another acceptable unit to rent.

4 Standardized Rental Documents

The government will prepare and distribute certain documents that landlords will be required to use.

Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan And Changes To How Landlords Can Run Their Rental Properties

While landlords understand the importance of protecting tenants, many in our community have serious concerns over these changes. For example:

Rent Control on Newer Properties

Many new condo landlords invested in condos over other types of properties (and invested in rental properties over other types of investment vehicles) because they had the flexibility of raising their rents annually in order to cover any increasing costs (like maintenance fees, etc.)

Many members of our landlord community list rising costs of operating their rental businesses as one of their biggest worries. If utilities increase dramatically it will have a strong negative impact on small landlords.

It may even lead to more landlords renting out “non-inclusive” of utilities leading to more pressure on tenants.

Lease Documents

Our community believes this will have a strong negative impact on both small landlords and tenants.

Many aspects of the landlord tenant relationship are not covered in the Residential Tenancies Act.

Our most experienced and successful small residential landlords like to get everything agreed to by all parties at the beginning of a tenancy. They make sure everything is clear and everyone understands what has been agreed upon.

With a strong and clear comprehensive residential tenancy agreement (“lease”) things such as laundry use, shared common spaces and shared driveways can be agreed upon prior to a tenancy beginning to avoid potential confusion or conflict later on. A good lease with agreed upon clauses helps both good landlords and good tenants.

Let’s Include A Lot More in the Ontario Fair Housing Plan To Protect Small Landlords

Last year the Province contacted us and said they wanted ideas and suggestions on how make changes to the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board to encourage more people to invest in rental properties in Ontario.

So we asked our community for some ideas on how to improve the rental industry and had a huge response from places ranging from Thunder Bay to Hamilton to the Niagara Region, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, etc.

Since changes are being made to the Residential Tenancies Act now with the Ontario Fair Housing Plan let’s take this opportunity for true comprehensive changes and improvements to overhaul the current system and help both good landlords and good tenants and improve the entire Ontario rental industry!

Here are just some of the changes our landlord community would like to see happen soon:

(1) Landlords Should Be Able To Charge A Damage Deposit If All Parties Agree

This was a very popular idea within our community. By making sure tenants have some “skin in the game” they will be more careful in the rental unit and won’t leave garbage or needed repairs when they move out.

As it is now, landlords will need to go to Small Claims Court to recover their losses. And when tenants moving out leave garbage and damages behind it hurts new tenants who are moving in the same day.

Our community lists the need for a damage deposit as one of the key changes needed to improve the Ontario rental industry.

(2) No Pets Should Mean “No Pets” (and we need to be able to charge a pet deposit)

The overwhelming response in our community is a love for pets.

The issue is some tenants don’t take care of their pets properly and that means damages to the rental unit.

We have many landlords who have stories of dog and cat urine soaked carpets. And tenants saying they don’t have pets, and then bringing in lots of dogs and cats the same day they move in.

The OLA has suggested a “pet deposit” that pet-owning tenants could pay to help ease the financial fears of having people move in and having pets lead to thousands of dollars in damages.

To be fair to tenants, a Toronto landlord suggested if there are no “pet damages” their deposit will be fully refunded and tenants will have a way to make sure it happens. If for some reason it’s not, the tenant can go to the LTB to get it back in a simple, easy and fast manner.

(3) We Need a Quicker and More Efficient Way To Evict Non-Paying Tenants

It can now take months and even years for landlords to evict non-paying tenants. If you want to encourage more people to invest in rentals in Ontario this needs to change.

For example, we should change the N4 period to receive rent from 14 days down to something more reasonable such as a week or 48 hours.

Hearings at the Landlord and Tenant Board should be guaranteed to be held within 14 days.

If the Enforcement Office cannot evict a tenant with a week, landlords need to be able to hire private bailiffs to fulfill and eviction order.

(4) Fast Evictions for Tenants Who Harm Other Tenants, Their Landlord, Or Seriously Damage The Rental

While this may sound a bit ridiculous for non-landlords, tenants who harass other tenants or their landlords is the reality for many of us.

This needs to change and landlords need a fast and efficient way to evict in these situations. A system such as Alberta landlords have would be a good policy for Ontario.

(5) When a Lease Ends Tenants Shouldn’t Automatically Become “Month by Month”

Tenants In Ontario tenants have ‘security of tenancy’. This means even when a mutually agreed upon lease is signed with a date for the termination of the lease, tenants can still stay on as monthly tenants afterwards.

This can become a real problem for small landlords as it doesn’t allow for any business certainty for future actions.

One Ottawa landlord wrote “In the province of Ontario it’s far easier to divorce your husband than it is to end a relationship with a tenant renting your basement.”

Is this the type of policy that encourages more good people to invest in rental properties in Ontario? No.

Many new landlords are not aware of security of tenancy laws in Ontario and are shocked when they find out.

(6) How About Different Rules for Corporate Landlords & Small Landlords With Rentals of 3 Or Less Units

We know there are problems in many of the big rental buildings out there.

By helping creating a fairer and more just system for small landlords there would be more investment in the industry and more rental properties available for tenants.

For example, small landlords can’t afford an expensive legal team to represent them at the LTB.

We also don’t have thousands of units, so one non-paying tenant can lead to extreme financial and emotion stress on the small landlord.

A better system that protects small landlords would also encourage more investment by people who would be excellent, service-oriented housing providers.

These are people such as teachers, mechanics, dentists, nurses and all sorts of working people who want to invest in residential rental properties as a business and a way to help themselves financially.

New Rules For Ontario Landlords in 2017

With all the new changes many in our community are asking “what about rights for small landlords?”

How about we work together for a system that helps both good tenants and good landlords? Let’s improve the Ontario rental industry and let’s do it now!

Let’s Support Small Landlords And Investors Who Create So Many Great Rental Properties For Tenants!

We Want To Hear From The Small Landlord Community. The Ontario Landlords Association Will Be Making a Submission to the Ministry Sharing Your Thoughts & Concerns on a Bill Which Could End the Exemption That Allows Rental Properties To Avoid Rent Control If The property Was Built After 1991

With these rising property prices, many areas have also seen rising rents. This has led to politicians looking to make changes in how the residential landlord-tenant system works in Ontario.

Why are rents rising?

It’s because most of the new rentals on the market are due to the investments of hard working and risk taking small landlords and investors. These are often working people who invest in a “income property” as a nest egg to help their financial future.

With costs rising these small landlords need to charge rents that cover their costs of owning the property. With prices rising, they also have to spend more buy the property. As they are also small business people they have invested with the goal of attaining at least some sort of profit.

Who are these Ontario landlords?

Many of these investors/landlords are people like you reading here. They are people who have jobs and are working very hard to build for their retirement.

They save their money, and invest…taking a risk to provide high quality rental properties for tenants with the hopes of a fair and decent return.

These investors/landlords include teachers, fire-fighters, police officers, dentists, contractors, secretaries, nurses, truck drivers, small business owners, retirees, etc. These are the people who make up the OLA community.

These investors and landlords are not rich corporations hoping to build their share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

We have written about the 1991 rent exemption before. In fact, before the OLA began discussing this it was rarely mentioned in the media and few people even knew about it. As with so many aspects of the rental business in Ontario after the OLA began discussing the issue it became well-known and a “hot issue”.

Why is this such a hot issue now?

It’s because rents are increasing. A Global News report said the average rent for a Toronto condo is now over $2000/month. So many tenants are justifiably concerned about rent increases and being able to afford being able to stay in their rental property.

What Do OLA Members Say?

Our landlord community consists of landlords all over Ontario. And we have owners of all types of rentals. These range from condos to basement apartment rentals to duplexes and even larger buildings.

The issue of rent control has been a big issue for our community for years. When this latest development was announced landlords were quick to begin to share their thoughts and concerns.

Here are some of the thoughts and points of discussion in our busy member forum.

(1) This is a Business And I Need To Keep Up With Costs

Many landlords worry about being able to cover their costs. They aren’t out to “gouge” tenants (as successful landlords know how valuable good tenants are). If rents can’t be raised to cover costs it will lead to financial hardship, especially for small landlords.

Others stated that landlords take a risk when buying a property to rent out and our investments are important to the Ontario economy. As they are running a “business” they need some flexibility in how they operate.

An Ottawa landlord said investors like her fund the construction industry and the building trades. We hire property managers and provide business to real estate agents.

We are also the people who are providing new rental accommodations. Changing the rules for rent control will impact jobs and the entire Ontario economy.

(2) I Bought My New Build Rental Property Because of the 1991 Exemption

Many new landlords who bought condos are shocked at the news that they may be covered by rent control.

One new condo investor wrote that if the exemption is stopped she will never ever trust this government again.

(3) My Rentals Aren’t in Downtown Toronto and If I Raise Rents Too High Tenants Will Just Move

Some landlords think the government is too focused on the situation in Toronto and not aware of how things work in the rest of Ontario where real vacancy rates are not that low. A Barrie landlord said while having the freedom to cover costs is important, if she raises rents too high her tenants will simply move.

(4) The 1991 Exemption Is Unfair To Landlords With Older Rental Properties Because The Rent Increase Guideline is Far Too Low

Many members of our Ontario landlord community own older homes. A Newmarket landlord said he buys older homes, invests his hard earned money to fix them, renovates them, makes them attractive, and then rents them out. He wonders why are these landlords punished with an extremely low annual rent increase guideline that is capped?

(5) Let’s Get Rid of Rent Control for All Rental Properties in Ontario Whatever the ‘Age’ of the Property

Some members of our community believe the real solution is to end rent control for all Ontario rental properties. This would lead to a lot more investment into rentals. This would give tenants more options and good landlords with great rental properties would be able to invest more with confidence.

Proposal To End the Rent Control Exemption on Properties Built After 1991

It seems so simple at first glance. The headlines are all about tenants who are being priced out of their rental property as rents rise.

In reality it’s more complicated.

The issue of rent control and rental properties requires serious research and the input of all stake-holders.

And small landlords are key stake-holders and our voices need be heard.

The Concerns From Tenant About Ridiculous Rent Increases Is a Serious Issue

Many of our members rented before and are concerned about the challenges tenants can face with a ridiculously high rent increase. The problem is legislation covering both large corporate landlords and small landlords will hurt the ‘small players’ who take tenant concerns seriously.

For example one of our members wrote “Good tenants are the key to success as a landlord and investor. I haven’t even raised rents on my good tenants for the past three years because I value them!”

Another landlord said: “Okay, make it fair for all rentals of all ages but make the annual rent increase more reasonable because now it’s far too low!”

Improving the Ontario Rental Industry to Benefit Landlords and Tenants

The stakes are high as any knee jerk media friendly policies could seriously impact the Ontario rental industry in a very negative way. This will hurt both good landlords and good tenants.

Bad policy decisions based on media click-bait stories can lead to very bad results for landlords and for tenants. It’s important the government meets with all stake-holders before such an important policy decision is made.

We will make a submission to the province and want to hear your landlord and tenant concerns about rent control. Contact us at landlordfairness@lobbyist.com.

We will make sure your voices are heard.

Any new policies regarding rent control need to be part of a much larger overhaul of the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board. Let’s improve the Ontario rental industry for tenants and small landlords who have invested in properties.

Ontario Landlords Filing Applications at the LTB Will See Fees Rise in 2017

Experienced Ontario landlords know one of the keys to success in this industry is having strong, mutually respectful relationships with your tenants.

You provide a terrific, safe, fairly priced rental property to your tenants. You are a service-oriented landlord and that means when things need fixing or issues arise, you make it a priority and get things fixed fast. When you fix these issues you cooperate with your tenant to make sure both sides are satisfied with the solution.

Great Tenants

In return your tenants take care of the rental home and pay their rent on time. When they want to move out to buy their own home or move to another area they provide proper notice and allow showings according to the Residential Tenancies Act. When you do the showings the tenants are cooperative and keep the place clean. (Many of our most successful members even have tenants recommend their rentals to new prospective tenants during showings).

It’s a win-win situation and it’s what everyone wants.

In Reality Sometimes Things Go Wrong

It happens.

Let’s face it, the LTB is very busy and this is why it can take such a long time to get a Hearing date.

Some landlords don’t fulfill their responsibilities. Important repairs are neglected and safety issues not taken as seriously as they need to be taken.

One of the most common complaints our members have discussed recently have been from landlords owning multiplex units. They have to deal with tenants arguing with other tenants in the building and get drawn into it.

Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)

When these type of issues happen landlords and tenants can go to the LTB to try to resolve the issues.

We’ve written before about the Landlord and Tenant Board and the longer you are a landlord the greater the chance that at some point you will need to go to a Hearing.

There are going to be some higher prices for landlords filing applications beginning on January 16, 2017. There are also going to be some increases for a couple of tenant applications.

The LTB wants it to be known that fees are going up around 10% and haven’t been increased since back in 2009. You can see the new 2017 fees versus the older ones here.

Fee Waivers For Those On a Low Income

If you are on a low income you can make a request for a ‘fee waiver’. The threshold to get this fee waiver has increased and you can find more information here.

Discounts With E-Filing

Four of the most common landlord and tenant applications can be filed through the LTB e-filing system. These forms make up about eighty percent of the applications filed.

These applications are:

(a) Form L1 – Application to Evict a Tenant for Non-Payment of Rent and to Collect the Rent the Tenant Owes

(b) Form L2 – Application to End a Tenancy and Evict a Tenant

(c) Form T2 – Application about Tenant Rights

(d) Form T6 – Tenant Application about Maintenance

Be aware of the discount if you are e-filing one of these.

Landlords and the Landlord Tenant Board 2017

Successful Ontario landlords know the importance of choosing good tenants and developing a mutually respectful relationship. Just as good landlords appreciate good tenants, good tenants also are looking for professional and knowledgeable landlords.

If you do go to the LTB make sure you are aware of the process and that includes knowing how much the fees are.

Experienced and successful landlords know the importance of owning safe, attractive, well-maintained rental properties. With great properties landlords can attract good tenants and are on your way to running a successful rental business.

Maintaining and improving properties can be costly. The prices of contractors, plumbers, electricians and building materials keep rising. Purchasing things to make your tenants happy can also add up. Improvements such as replacing windows and doors to help save heating costs, adding new outside lights to create a more secure environment, and buying the latest energy efficient appliances can be a challenge for small landlords on a tight budget.

How Much Can Landlords Raise the Rent in 2017?

According to the Ministry of Housing, the province of Ontario has set the 2017 rent increase guideline at 1.5%

What is the Rent Increase Guideline?

This is a question many new landlords ask us. The rent increase guideline is the maximum amount of money a landlord can raise a tenant’s rent. If you want to raise it more than the guideline you have to get approved by an adjudicator at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

How is the Rent Increase Guideline Calculated?

It is created with information contained in the Ontario Consumer Price Index.Most of the information is gathered by Statistics Canada which measures inflation.